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Californian Kevin McCarthy is new GOP chief

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoJ. SCOTT APPLEWHITE | ASSOCIATED PRESSThe new House GOP leadership team meets the press: from left, Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Kevin McCarthy of California and Speaker John Boehner of West Chester.

Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California capped a meteoric rise through the ranks of power
yesterday, winning election as House majority leader as Republicans shuffled their leadership in
the wake of Rep. Eric Cantor’s primary defeat in Virginia.

Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, 48, was elected to replace McCarthy as whip, a clear indication
that the rank and file wanted a red-state Republican in the leadership for the first time since the
party gained control of the House in 2010.

McCarthy, a former aide who won his seat in Congress less than eight years ago, pledged after
his victory to make sure the GOP “has the courage to lead with the wisdom to listen, and we’ll turn
this country around.”

The changes take effect when Cantor steps down as majority leader on July 31. The current leader
attended the day’s elections but did not speak as his successor was selected.

“Listen, our job is to stay focused on the American people’s priorities. We’ve made their
priorities our priorities,” he said. “The American people are still asking ‘where are the jobs?’
And our job is to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to promote our economy and
create more jobs and higher wages for the American people.”

Within moments of McCarthy’s election, the League of United Latin American Citizens issued a
statement calling on him to schedule a vote in the House on legislation to overhaul immigration
law.

The issue has long divided Republicans and figured prominently in Cantor’s defeat a little more
than a week ago, when he was trounced by David Brat, a little-known, underfunded tea party-backed
challenger.

At a news conference after the closed-door elections, Scalise and several other Republicans
stressed that the party is united as it heads into the last half of the year. They were at pains to
project that image as well, refusing even to provide the vote totals that might betray any internal
division.

McCarthy was first elected to Congress in 2006, after serving as an aide to Rep. Bill Thomas of
California and a member of the California legislature.

He was named chief deputy whip by Cantor in 2009 and became whip after Republicans won control
of the House in the 2010 elections.

McCarthy is the first House member to become majority or minority leader after serving less than
five full terms in the chamber, said Eric Ostermeier, research associate at the University of
Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance.

If McCarthy’s ascension seemed a foregone conclusion, the battle to take his whip’s spot was
anything but — so much so that there was speculation that a second ballot might be required to
settle the contest. In the end, it wasn’t necessary, as Scalise won on the first round.

Scalise defeated Reps. Peter Roskam of Illinois and Marlin Stutzman of Indiana. He campaigned as
head of the Republican Study Committee, a group that sometimes serves as a conservative thorn in
the side of leadership.